| Post/Author/DateTime | Post |
|---|---|
| #1RhennyAug 13, 2014 20:17:01 | Ghosts of Dragonspear Castle Campaign (WARNING: Mega Spoilers!!!)
Cast of Characters
Mara – Female Human Fighter
(This session was a short interlude…only 2 players could make it. They both agreed to just play a little and scout the area to the west)
A monk named Ivan met with the party as they were resting at the bandit’s hideout in the Lizard Marsh. He was sent from Sir Isteval as a reinforcement. He met the group and while everyone was speaking with Maedchen, Ivan and Mara decided to scout to the west taking the dragon wyrmling along with them to try to train it.
They traveled 3 hours encountered some giant frogs and killed them. The whole time, Mara was beginning to figure out how to command the dragon wyrmling. Resting for an hour, the two adventurers were able to recharge and head back to the bandit lair.
On their way back they were jumped (literally) by a pack of bullywugs. As Mara attacked and was attacked by a handful of the creatures, she tried to get the dragon wyrmling to attack. Unfortunately, the wyrmling had other ideas. It decided to take wing and circle the battleground. Ivan and Mara fought fiercely against 7 of the creatures…two of which threw nets at them to try to snag them, but both Ivan and Mara were able to dodge. Ivan smashed bullywugs with quarterstaff and kicks, and dodged with his ki power. Mara wielded duel shortswords, used second wind and action surge. After about 15 seconds, Mara finally got the wyrmling to attack. It swooped down and lined up two bullywugs for an acid splash. Both of the bullywugs dodged and took some damage, one lived the other was melted by the caustic spittle.
Within another few rounds, both Ivan and Mara were taken down by one remaining bullywug (after a wounded one ran away – I actually rolled 2 crits against Ivan to take him down). The dragon wyrmling scared the last bullywug away and tried to nuzzle Mara.
Mara and Ivan failed their first death saves.
Mara failed her next one.
Ivan succeeded.
Mara succeeded.
Ivan rolled a crit on his next one...and was conscious...but he couldn't act.
Mara failed her last death save, and died face down in the swamp.
The dragon wyrmling tried to nuzzle up to her, but she was cold and dead.
Then the dragon snapped at Ivan and nearly killed him.
Ivan used a potion he found on Mara's body to gain back some of his health.
Then he was able to calm the wyrmling, and get it to follow him back to the bandit’s lair as he carried Mara’s dead body back as well.
Comments
Wow….that was an exciting little expedition. Danger lurks in Lizard Marsh. As DM, I rolled for random encounters completely during this sidetrek.
When the bullywug encounter came up, I rolled for numbers and got 7, which made it pretty tough for the two adventurers since the dragon wyrmling was fickle and didn’t attack for 3 or 4 rounds.
The player who played Mara was a good sport. Her death, trying to train the dragon wyrmling, is giving him an opportunity to create a new PC from a far off land. One that he is designing to use chakram, a weapon he wanted to use even though there are no rules for them. To reward his good nature, I’m letting cultural diffusion enter the game and he’ll be able to create a duel wielding chakram warrior. I’m going to rule that the chakram do 1d6 damage and can be thrown 20’/60’ (I want to incentivize his desire to create a character concept so I’m making them like shortswords with thrown range like daggers).
Now, Ivan has control of the dragon wyrmling, but he does not have animal handling (although his wisdom is pretty high). This will make the rest of the adventure very interesting.
This side trek took about 1 hour to run. |
| #2LeugrenAug 13, 2014 23:41:25 | Thanks for the report! It made for a far more interesting read than most of the threads on this forum. |
| #3frothsofAug 14, 2014 4:18:05 | The forum categories are hideous and idiotic. Needs to be rules questions, optimization, homebrew, and general discussion. The player and DM forums are useless and unintuitive. Put organized play as a subforum in gd. |
| #4AquaticSpaceChickenAug 14, 2014 5:02:10 | Nice write up, Rhenny. I have a question: In your opinion, how does using random encounters stack up compared to other editions you have played? Since I prefer sandbox type campaigns, I am wondering how using random encounters that are not carefully tailored to the party's number and level works out. I kept reading the term "rocket tag" on various threads, and it is starting to worry me.
Mind you, I started play in 1e, and we used to joke about how it was safer in the dungeon than outside of it, and the scariest part of the adventure was having to leave the dungeon to walk back to town. In retrospect, it even makes sense. That deadly wilderness is what made the dungeon remote and humans and monsters apart. I suspect that's why wizards eventually invented the teleport spell, too: "Hey, I know you all were worried about the dangerous trek to the Soul Sucking Tower of Face Melting Liches, so I made a spell to get us there directly!" |
| #5OrwellianHaggisAug 14, 2014 5:25:56 | Nice read, Rhenny.
Pity about the death of Mara, though it's great your player is willing to move on with a positive attitude. Did Ivan leave the body, or take it with him for a proper burial? Is this dragon wyrmling a custom-made beastie? |
| (Reply to #2)Rhenny |
|
| #7RhennyAug 14, 2014 7:23:16 |
|
| (Reply to #4)Rhenny |
|
| (Reply to #7)frothsof |
|
| (Reply to #5)Rhenny |
|